Indian government decides to adopt girls to stop female feoticide

Renuka Chowdhary, the minister of state for women and child development, estimates the number of either female foetuses aborted or newborn girls killed to be 10 million over the past two decades…A Unicef report last December said 7,000 fewer girls are born in India every day than the global average would suggest…The findings revealed a grisly underside to the economic boom in India. The imbalance in gender ratio has become sharpest in India’s richest districts, where couples can afford the ultrasound examination. Although sex determination tests of unborn babies are illegal, states display neither the political will nor the resources to enforce the law.

Yes the real problem is lack of enforcement of the law. One never hears of doctors going to jail for killing children. Or parents.

But will the government’s solution work? It is asking people to deposit their little baby girls with the government! All those who want to get rid of their girls simply have to deposit them in a cradle under a ‘cradle scheme’ of each district which has a problem with the sex ratio. According to a Times of India report:

India’s sex ratio has been recorded at an abysmal 933 females per 1000 males in the 2001 census. Northern states fare the worse, with Delhi plumbing the depth at 821. In Haryana, the sex ration is 861, while Punjab is only slightly better with a figure of 876

Ofcourse these figures actually paint a rosy picture! And the government knows it only too well. These figures are six years old! The sex ratio has plummeted further, with some districts in the north with just half the number of girls as compared to boys! Female feticide is rampant in India even after all these years and worse, Renuka Chowdhary believes that this evil practice is spreading, not decreasing because of new technologies that are able to detect the sex of the fetus very early in the pregnancy. Why, just last week, almost 400 pieces of bones of newly born female babies were found in Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh! SICK!

And whats even sicker is that parents are defiant and defensive. They do not want to pay dowry so they feel nothing is wrong in getting rid of their girls! Even affluent families are getting rid of their girls – in fact they find it easier as they have the money to scan and pay for abortions. People don’t seem to get it that the girls should live and fight for their rights. Or that the parents can always refuse to pay dowry – not every family pays dowry.

But coming back to the government cradle scheme. Can it work? There are those who feel that giving a girl to a government home is a bad thing. There are some horror stories of what can happen to orphan girls. A recent case is that of the rape of an eight year old girl in Gopalpur. There have been cases where the founders of orphanages commit rape. Some well publicised cases are of an unregistered orphanage near Visakapatnam and another one of the rape and sexual harrassment of several girls in an orphange in Mumbai. And this is just sexual harrassment. Other kinds of harrassment go on in institutions on a regular basis. For any scheme of the government to work, there has to be trust in the system. I can only pray that this scheme will save some lives.

Why doesn’t the government divert its resources to punishing those who commit these crimes? Why, just one man’s will has managed to change the sex ratio in a district in Punjab in just one year! What are also needed are mass sensitisation programmes throughout India to improve the status of women. If women are respected this will never happen. This education has to be given in schools as it is in the family system that stereotypes about women are formed.

Now if this is going to continue for long then there won’t be enough
brides for men who wish to get married. Now this has already happened in some parts of Rajasthan . There are already some communities in Rajasthan which have started the practice of polyandry . The main reason cited was that they weren’t able to pay the bride-price . Sad isn’t it?

As a resolution I have decided not to demand/take dowry when I get married.

I don’t think the plan of government of adopting a girl child is going to work because there is a social stigma attached to it.i think in a affluent state like Punjab problem is not about cost of rearing a child but the lack of awareness and strong desire to have boy child.So better option is the enforcement of law to stop female foeticide.

Some parents desert their girls in orphanages because they don’t want to spend money for dowry and some telugu TV serials also showed such stories. Running orphanages, prostitutes rescue homes and beggars rescue homes etc is a variety of money making scheme for NGOs in the name of charity.

Search by subject

Search by subject

DISCLAIMER

Scroll down to read

1)The information on this blog is not given for any commercial purposes. Any ads that you might see are by Wordpress. When this blog was being written, the proceeds went to them, not a single penny/paisa to me. However now they do share the proceeds, but at the time they didn't.

2) The information on various subjects may be by no means comprehensive. The articles on health are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Do seek the advice of your doctor if you suspect that you have a medical condition.

3) I do not have any affinity for any political party.

4) On my front page there are links to blogs I read. This does not mean that I subscribe to their views.

5) I am not a professional photographer and operate with the easy-to-use digital Canon 610.

5)Any material taken from another source is for referencing only. If anyone has any objection to their work being referenced, please write to me to ask to withdraw the reference.

6) Photographs from news sites are at times used on this blog, with acknowledgment. I am not making money from this blog, but if the owners of the photographs object, kindly write to me and the picture shall be removed.

Search all posts by date

Search all posts by date

A NOTE ABOUT COMMENTS:Your response is greatly valued so go ahead and say it! I read all comments and also try to answer each one. But I don't usually answer comments on my old posts, unless someone asks a question, but your views are always welcome and every comment is a kind of update so don't hesitate.

GIVE YOUR SUGGESTIONS:If you have suggestions for posts, you are welcome to email me with your ideas at the email address given above. I shall do my best to use them.

WRITE A GUEST POST:If you wish, you can also submit an article of yours for publication but it will be published only after review and if it fits in with the style and theme of this blog. Your name and a link to your blog will be provided at the end of the article.

Any subscriptions to email forwards or newsletters will be deleted and marked as spam.

A NOTE:The newspaper and magazine articles published on this blog are written by me. However, they may not be a word for word representation of the articles published in print. They may be abridged versions, or simply updated.